District Attorney Ken Mauldin would have us believe Japan welcomes immigrants, child molesters included. The story indicated prosecutors in the case would not object to McCann returning to Japan after his release from jail.

Mauldin is also quoted as saying he based the plea agreement, in which McCann pleaded guilty to single counts of child molestation, sexual exploitation of children and false imprisonment, on "the strength of the evidence we had - or lack thereof."

Who does Mauldin think he's kidding? Given that the judge in the Clarke County Superior Court case appeared ready to admit evidence in connection with a 45-count grand jury indictment on sexual exploitation charges, one could reasonably assume a guilty verdict and a longer than five-year sentence on those charges alone. Certainly the evidence must have been as strong as that in the recent cases of the visiting student who was shot downtown, the University of Georgia library fire and the case of the UGA basketball players accused of rape, all of which ended with verdicts of not guilty.

Unless you believe wizard defense attorneys pulled the wool over the jury's eyes in all three very high-profile cases, the district attorney's pursuit of justice is more roll of the dice than search for truth.

A sentence of five years in jail and 25 years probation, as McCann got, is, as Mauldin said, "nothing to shake a stick at." But as a sentence for child molestation, it's nothing not to sneeze at, either. In a time where the continuing and often escalating dangers posed by pedophiles released to probation are causing some states to explore Global Positioning System anklets and civil commitments, it is an insult not only to the victims and their parents, but also to those of us not too arrogant to believe it could never happen to people like us.